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[A MINABEL RELEASE] Dai Fujikura presents three large ensemble works, conducted by Pierre Boulez, Thierry Fischer, and Michael Lewanski, alongside three solo pieces. The ecstatic character of Fujikura's brilliant orchestration is contrasted by his introspective exploration of solo insrumental timbre, while his unique, exploratory voice is a constant throughout.

Composer Dai Fujikura’s second release on his Minabel imprint features three live orchestral recordings conducted by Pierre Boulez (Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra), Thierry Fischer (Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra), and Michael Lewanski (De Paul University Ensemble 20+). The piano concerto and title track, Ampere, highlight Fujikura’s richly colorful orchestration and a virtuosic performance by soloist Noriko Ogawa. Stream State deftly alludes to many musical worlds without inhabiting any specific one – muted trumpets, jagged pizzicatos, swooping glissandi, and punctuating percussive hits work together to paint an otherworldly sound painting. The three solo works find Fujikura in characteristic terrain, exploring the edges of instrumental technique to evoke sounds often inspired by and reminiscent of natural environments. my butterflies is in a similar vein, opening with wind instruments fluttering in imitation of the sound of an insect’s wings.

With this release, Dai Fujikura reinforces his remarkable range of expressivity and originality, drawing influence from the natural world around him and then intensifying it into a fantastic surrealism of his own creation.

Dai Fujikura

Although Dai Fujikura was born in Osaka, he has now spent more than 20 years in the UK where he studied composition with Edwin Roxburgh, Daryl Runswick and George Benjamin. During the last decade he has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including Kazimierz Serocki International Composers’ Competition 1998 and a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in UK, Internationaler Wiener Composition Prize, the Paul Hindemith Prize in Austria and Germany respectively and both the OTAKA and Akutagawa awards in 2009.

A quick glance at his list of commissions and performances reveals he is fast becoming a truly international composer. His music is not only performed in the country of his birth or his adopted home, but is now performed in venues as geographically diverse as Caracas and Oslo, Venice and Schleswig-Holstein, Lucerne and Paris.

In his native Japan he has been accorded the special honour of a portrait concert in Suntory Hall in October 2012. In London where he chooses to live with his wife and family, he has now received two BBC Proms commissions, his Double Bass Concerto was recently premiered by the London Sinfonietta and in 2013 the BBC Symphony Orchestra gave the UK premiere of ‘Atom’ as part of the Total Immersion: Sounds from Japan.

The French music world too has taken him to its hearts with numerous commissions, culminating in his first opera – an artistic collaboration with Saburo Teshigawara, which will be co-produced by Theatre des Champs Elysées, Lausanne and Lille. In Germany the European premiere of ‘Tocar y Luchar,’ the world premiere of which was given in Venezuela by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, was given at the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin. His next German commission is ‘Grasping’ for the Munich Chamber Orchestra which was premiered in Korea before being brought back to Munich. Switzerland has featured his music at the Lucerne Festival, Austria at the Salzburg Festival and Norway at the Punkt Festival and a commission in 2013 from the Oslo Sinfonietta.

Conductors with whom he has worked include Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Jonathan Nott, Gustavo Dudamel, the newly-appointed conductor of the Suisse Romande, Kazuki Yamada and Alexander Liebreich. His compositions are increasingly the product of international co-commissions. In 2012/13 the Seattle and Bamberg Symphony will each give continental premieres of ‘Mina’ for wind a percussion soloists and orchestra and the Asian premiere will be given by Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2011/12 the Arditti Quartet performed ‘flare’ in collaborating venues in London, Edinburgh and Tokyo. His opera, which is based on Stanislaw Lem’s novel, Solaris, will be co-produced in both France and Switzerland.

In 2012 NMC released "secret forest", the first disc devoted exclusively to his music, and in 2013 Commmons released "Mirrors", an album including four of his orchestral works. KAIROS has released "ice" an album including his chamber and electronics music. He also runs his own record label Minabel. Minabel has released six of his portrait albums, two of which are collaboration with SONY Japan.

He has also collaborated in the experimental pop/jazz/improvisation world. A co-composition with Ryuichi Sakamoto was premiered in Hakuju Hall in Japan, collaborative works with David Sylvian are on Sylvian's "died in the wool" album and also Dai's co-compositions with Jan Bang and Sidsel Endresen feature on Jan Bang's album, released from Jazzland records.

Reviews

Planet Hugill

Dai Fujikura's second release on his Minabel label, Ampere, again showcases the composer's fascination with complex textures in a selection of works for orchestra and for solo instruments. The disc includes his concerto for piano and orchestra, Ampere, played by pianist Noriko Ogawa with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Thierry Fischer, Fluid Calligraphy for solo violin played by Barbara Luneburg, Stream State for orchestra performed by the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez, Poyopoyo for solo horn performed by Nobuaki Fukukawa, Perla for bass recorder played by Inbar Solomon and My Butterflies for wind orchestra played by DePaul University Ensemble 20+ conducted by Michael Lewanski.

Fujikura's piano concerto, Ampere (2008) was written for soloist Noriko Ogawa. It is Fujikura's first piano concerto, and written for a fellow Japanese expatriot. For the work Fujikura talked of integrating the piano and orchestra so that they are 'one big piano', with the orchestra processing and reflecting back the material played by the soloist.

The work opens with an angry dialogue, as if the outburst from the orchestra are trying to interrupt the piano; In fact the work feels far more dramatic and more combative than the composer's own description. Gradually the orchestra allows the piano to develop and Fujikura's writing seems to incorporate elements of jazz. As ever with Fujikura, the textures of the writing are fascinating and it seems to be variety of texture which interests him rather than strictly melodic material. Time and again you listen to a passage and wonder quite what instruments he is using.

The piece has the feeling of a multi-movement work and in the middle section the tempo eases and the textures thin though the piano writing still has its jagged elements. Much of the writing is bravura, albeit not in a conventional fashion, and Ogawa is quite brilliant in her performance. The more virtuoso sections develop a positively orgiastic feel to them in a wonderful moment, before things calm down. The ending is quiet and intense rather than the big finish. For the finale the composer further extends the soundworld of the piece by concentrating on a few solo instruments in the orchestra and incorporating a glass harmonica and a toy piano whose sounding pieces are made of glass. The results are simply magical, and Ogawa, the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and Thierry Fischer are on fine form throughout.

Fluid Calligraphy (2010) is an attempt to explore the idea of calligraphy using a solo violinist, with the phrasing and accents deliberately not following the arc of the melodic line. The violin writing is rather eerie, full of high notes, harmonics, slides and other effects. The playing from Barbara Luneburg is stupendous. The overall sound is quite edgy, and the work has an uneasy quality. Despite the scurryings of notes there is a certain austere quality of the piece.

The orchestral work Stream State (2005) was commissioned for the Lucerne Festival Academy, founder Pierre Boulez. Instead of using the orchestra conventionally, Fujikura re-organises them into three groups, each with their own personality with the central group producing high-pitched chords and the outer two groups swapping pizzicatos. This was recorded live in 2005 as part of the Lucerne Festival, with Pierre Boulez conducting the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra.

It is a work that, at first, seems to be wholly about texture with the sustain string textures interrupted by others full of pizzicato and fidgety scurrying. The whole has a magical effect, but underneath there is tension, excitement builds and you sense and underlying drama.

Poyopoyo is written for solo horn but at times the sound world Fujikura seems to be exploring is closer to the trombone. The work is muted and quiet, intriguing and discreet. All Fujikura's writing seems to explore the limits of the possible in his chosen instruments, here we don't have something virtuoso but instead quite the opposite. The work explores the limits of quiet intensity, gradually moving towards more extended playing techniques. And the playing from Nobuaki Fukukawa shows stunning control.

Perla (2003/2008) is for bass recorder, a work which explores a very modern side to the instrument. Again we are using extended playing techniques, including over-blowing, which has the result of making the instrument sound anything but the traditional renaissance and baroque stand-by. Fujikura also works in fragments which sound South American, perhaps reflecting the recorder's links to South American folk instruments. Recorder player Inbar Solomon offers superb control and playing

My Butterflies is for wind orchestra, and was inspired by the sensations Dai Fujikura's wife felt during the first weeks of pregnancy. The work was co-commissioned by the DePaul University School of Music. Again Fujikura's writing intrigues and tantalises, as you struggle to work out quite what you are listening to. There is an intriguing mix of textures, with a lot of flutter tonguing. But there is a spaciousness to the writing, you sense that quite a few instruments are being used sparingly.

In all these pieces you sense Fujikura de-constructing his chosen instrument (or instruments) and pushing their techniques to the limit, recombining in new and striking ways. His writing have a very textural quality and I am unsurprised to read of the visual side to his inspiration. The piece here are demanding, both of performers and listeners. Performers on this disc are all stunning, giving performances which command attention from the listener. And it is an attention which is well rewarded.

Shock of the New

The Minabel label offers an enchanting sonic odyssey through the musical landscapes of Dai Fujikura in Ampere, a collection which sees the composer’s constant hunger for musical expression take form in a range of compositions, from large-scale orchestral works to chamber music and pieces for solo instruments. Yet, as always, each piece offers the composer’s own distinct perspective on the forces for whom the piece is written, in his exploration of new expressive possibilities and extended techniques

The opening work is a case in point. Ampere is not traditional concerto, in which soloist is pitted against the orchestra; rather, the piano is the catalyst, evoking responses from the orchestra that reflect the various hues and textures the pianist draws from the instrument, extrapolated into a series of orchestral colours. Ultimately, though, the piano falls victim to the sympathetic responses it evinces from the orchestra, and amidst a breathless sea of fluttering pizzicato strings, is transformed from sonorous grand piano into a toy piano, whose exotic utterances are now limited in colour and scope; no longer able to provoke a range of replies from the orchestra, the toy piano falls silent, and the piece comes to a conclusion.

The shimmering orchestral textures of Stream State see the surface of the orchestra scintillating with shifting layers of material, pitching differing orchestral textures against one another in a constant state of change. Far from the homogenous, blended sound of a traditional symphony orchestra, the sound here is always in flux. A more sedate second section attempts to impose some semblance of unity across different families; low, restless brass, pizzicato strings, brittle percussion. The rest of the orchestra rises in revolt; sustained woodwind chords try to impart a centre, soon shouted down by a defiant tutti chord. Wisps of material dart elusively through the strings, to be answered by clattering percussion. Rasping brass drives a fomenting orchestra to a frenzy, before a strangely calm conclusion.

Balancing the larger-scale works are three pieces for solo instruments. The balletic grace of Fluid Calligraphy is painted in ethereal arabesques in an exploration of the full range of harmonics on a solo violin. In Poyopoyo, the solo French horn almost attains the state of being able to speak, in the fluttering, muted survey of its articulatory possibilities. For anyone familiar with the talking trombone of the teacher in those Charlie Brown cartoons from the seventies, this is a more refined, introspective version – the schoolteacher caught alone, in a reflective soliloquy. There’s mischief here too, though, with laughter often bubbling to the surface. The natural state of the horn’s soundworld is refashioned, like plasticine, handled like something ‘soft and squidgy’ (as the title translates) and moulded into something much more articulate. The solo instrument really is speaking its own language, if only we could just catch the words – the piece is beautifully executed with superb control in this recording by Nobuaki Fukukawa. Perla is a slow, often sensuous exploration of the expressive power of the bass recorder, employing flutter-tonguing and overblowing techniques as the instrument lurks lonely beneath the moonlight.

The gentle, diaphanous opening of the final piece on the disc, my butterflies, evokes an iridescent heat-haze; the texture gradually opens out, embracing muted brass chords, building to the first sustained vertical sonorities and a moment of release. Fujikura demonstrates (as elsewhere on this disc) his extraordinary ear for texture, for instrumentation that works to enhance as well as to draw out distinct differences between families of instruments. An oboe and bassoon melody moves in slow, measured steps, underpinned by a sustained chord in the distance, leading to a sedate and serenely noble conclusion, reminiscent of Stravinsky. Of all the pieces on the disc, this is perhaps the most lyrical, the most expressive, permeated throughout by a hushed expectation – a reflection in part, maybe, of the initial inspiration for the work, Fujikura’s wife in the early stages of pregnancy.

Coming away from the disc, you are left with a sense that your ears have been opened to the experience of sound anew; Fujikura’s music, in its tightly-controlled expressive means allied with a wonderfully articulate textural language, opens the doors to sound in a manner which makes you listen with a renewed inquisitive sense. For all its surface-level industry and constant exploration of textural possibilities afforded by the instrument(s) for which the composer is writing, there emerges an overall unity of vision, a singular concept from Fujikura’s music; that of being enchanted by sound, of being enthralled by the sonic landscapes through which the music moves. The works on this new disc show his handling of instrumental forces continuing to broaden and mature, in his continuing investigation into new aural possibilities.

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New Focus Recordings is an artist led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer/engineer/producer Ryan Streber, and composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, formed …Read More …